The global trend is seeing native forests cut down to be burnt in electricity furnaces and termed ‘renewable power’. This further damages climate, natural carbon stores and our forests and wildlife.
The global trend is seeing native forests cut down to be burnt in electricity furnaces and termed ‘renewable power’. This further damages climate, natural carbon stores and our forests and wildlife.
Using wood pellets to generate low-carbon electricity is a flawed policy that is speeding up not slowing down climate warming. That’s according to a new study which says wood is not carbon neutral and emissions from pellets are higher than coal. Subsidies for biomass should be immediately reviewed, the author says. But the industry rejected …
Countries in the EU, including the UK, are throwing away money by subsidising the burning of wood for energy, according to an independent report. While burning some forms of wood waste can indeed reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in practice the growing use of wood energy in the EU is increasing rather than reducing emissions, the …
In 2010, economist Judith Ajani wrote about the forest wars that have besieged us over the last 40 years or more, the bad decisions made and what needs to be done. This is still as relevant today – in fact even more so as the industry is set to collapse due to overcutting but with …
As American foresters ramp up logging to meet the growing demand for wood pellets by power plants on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, a new European wood energy proposal would allow the power plants to continue claiming their operations are green for at least 13 more years, despite releasing more heat-trapping pollution than …
The European Union’s proposals for revising its renewable energy policies are greenwashing and don’t solve the serious flaws, say environmental groups. The EU gets 65 per cent of its renewable energy from biofuels – mainly wood – but it is failing to ensure this bioenergy comes from sustainable sources, and results in less emissions than …
Europe’s bioenergy plants are burning trees felled from protected conservation areas rather than using forest waste, new report shows Protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife. Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving …
The 19th October is the International Day of Action on Bioenergy. Many countries are burning forests, their own and other countries, as a source of power generation and industrial heat – claimed to be ‘renewable’. Australia is following closely. As the European Union’s renewable energy policies have been one of the most forceful drivers of the …
October 19th is the International Day of Action on Bioenergy, a day to raise awareness about the impacts of the growing bioenergy industry driven by unwisely designed renewable energy policies. As we know, in many cases bioenergy hasn’t exactly lived up to the promises of renewable energy such as emission reductions and environmental protection – …
I spent the first four years of my life living in the middle of the forest in southeastern NSW. Our log cabin was at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by stringybark, spotted gum and the sounds of kookaburras and lyre birds. Wombat holes and lichen-covered boulders dotted the hillside and the creek ran …
For nearly 20 years, Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) have given the logging industry preferential access to around seven million hectares of publicly owned native forests in four states. Logging has been exempted from Federal environment laws for this time. AFCA together with over 30 environment groups say RFAs should be abolished and logging in native …
